Greek authorities probe New Zealand gunman Tarrant’s 2016 stay in Greece

Greek Police and intelligence services are feverishly investigating a mysterious 2016 stay in Greece of Brenton Tarrant, whose diatribe of over 70 pages explained the motivations of his massacre of at least 50 Muslims in New Zealand and included references to Greek and Turkish history.

Tarrant had painted in white on one of his weapons the word Turkofagos (Turk-eater, the moniker of Greek Revolutionary hero Nikitaras) and Lepanto (site of the enormous 1571 Battle of Lepanto, which dealt a huge blow to Ottoman power).

A high-level Greek security source told Ta Nea reporter Vasilis Lambropoulos that Tarrant "had stayed for about 20 days in our country in the March-April, 2016 period".

"We have received data from airline companies showing that he arrived in Athens on 20 March, 2016. He traveled to Santorini where he stayed for three days. He then traveled to Iraklio, Crete where he stayed for about one week before returning to Athens by plane," the source said.

Ten days off the radar

Authorities have not as yet found traces of Tarrant's movement and activity in the ensuing ten days. Ten days after his arrival in Athens he next pops up at the airport of the northern port city of Thessaloniki.

Greek authorities believe that Tarrant stayed in Athens and took trips to southern and central Greece and that he may have stayed for a few days in Thessaloniki.

It appears that Tarrant then traveled to Istanbul and from there directly to Slovenia.

Counter-terrorism task force

Greek Police's counter-terrorism bureau has set up a task force to scour for information regarding Tarrant's activity after he reached Athens by aeroplane from Istanbul on 20 March, 2016. They are combing...